Jol and Hughes play down spat

26 Feb 2012 07:17:05

Martin Jol and Mark Hughes both downplayed talk of an altercation after Fulham secured victory from a tense west London derby at QPR.

The clubs' once-amicable relationship is far more fraught nowadays due in no small part to Bobby Zamora's defection to join former Cottagers manager Hughes at Loftus Road. Having seen 10-man Rangers lose 1-0 to Pavel Pogrebnyak's early goal, there appeared to be an issue in the post-match handshake between Jol and his QPR counterpart.

Asked what happened on the touchline, Hughes said: "I offered my hand and he shook it readily. I congratulated him on a good performance by his team. They won the game and I don't have a problem with that. I took exception because I thought he was going to tap me on the head, which I deemed to be slightly patronising so I brushed his arm away. That is all it was. No big deal."

Jol echoed the QPR manager's version of events, saying in the post-match press conference: "We shook hands but maybe I made it a bit too personal, you know?

"I tried to grab his shoulder and he didn't like that because he is a tough guy. He is a winner, he wants to win. Maybe he doesn't like me, I don't know."

There had been talk of a rift between Jol and his predecessor after quotes emanated last month following Hughes' appointment at Loftus Road. The reports suggested the Dutchman had questioned the QPR manager's staying power, although he denied making such comments.

"They asked me if I would like to stay longer at Fulham and then they made a connection," Jol said. "I said 'on average, you are at a club in the Premier League for two years' and then the next day they said I had said he was only at his club for one year.

"Everybody knows he was at Wales for four years and Blackburn for four or five years.

"That was not my quote and I told him as well. We sent him an email of the whole press conference and that was enough from me."

When told of the supposed email, Hughes said he did not recall receiving it but that there was a "little bit of communication between both PR departments".